The present invention relates to a strip baggage tag which is formed in endless or roll form for facilitating machine printing, of a type which includes a control section, and a tag part which is to be attached to an item of baggage.
In order to identify passengers' baggage while they are travelling on a means of transportation, particularly in international air travel, baggage tags are used which consist essentially of two parts, namely a tag part which can be attached to a particular bag, and a control section which makes it possible to identify the bag and is turned over to the person checking the baggage.
The control section is generally developed as a tear-off part which can be torn off from the tag part along a transversely extending separation line or separation perforations. The backs of both the control section and the tag part are provided with a pressure-sensitive adhesive. The layer of pressure-sensitive adhesive must first of all be covered by a web coated with a separating agent, for instance a silicone paper, in order to maintain the adhesive capable of use. In this way, the control section can, after detachment, be fastened by means of the adhesive layer to or in a passage ticket. The tag part which is to be attached to the bag, after exposing the adhesive layer, is placed around the handle of the bag in question by forming it into a loop and bonding it to itself.
The known strip baggage tags have the disadvantage that, in order to activate the pressure-sensitive adhesive, the protective papers which are coated with separating agent must be removed and disposed of. Since this work is generally carried out at the time of check-in at the airline counter under the pressure of time, the possibility cannot be excluded that such papers will fall on the floor and, due to their smooth surface, result in increased danger of accidents due to slipping on them.
Another disadvantage is that, when the one part of the strip baggage tag is attached as a loop to the bag, the surface provided with the pressure-sensitive adhesive is frequently brought together hastily and inaccurately with the facing surface, so that exposed regions of the adhesive layer which are not covered by a corresponding facing surface remain, particularly at the edges. There is thus the danger that these regions will stick to other bags. In such case, the upper web of the tag part, which consists of tear-resistant material, can detach itself from the lower web which is coated with the separating agent and which is not able by itself to assure resistance to tearing, so that the tag may become detached from the bag.
A plurality of such strip baggage tags are customarily produced alongside each other in wide webs and only subsequently are cut into narrow webs, each having a tag, webs being made available to the user, attached to each other, in endless or roll form. The tags are then printed on from the stack or roll by a printer, generally by a thermal printer. Only then are they separated into individual tag lengths. As a result of being manufactured in wide webs, the coating of adhesive is generally applied continuously. Thus, it extends up to the longitudinal edges of the tag, leading to the danger, upon printing in the printer, that the pressure-sensitive adhesive will soften as a result of the action of the heat in the printer and small quantities of the adhesive will ooze out laterally, contaminating and damaging the printer. In order to prevent this, it is necessary to "edge" the wide webs before cutting, i.e., to stamp out narrow strips from the upper web on both side of the subsequent cut edges, without, however, damaging the lower web. This additional work is complicated and increases the cost of the mass-produced article, the strip baggage tag.
In order to avoid the necessity of disposing of silicone-coated parts as waste, a known baggage tag has the control section is developed as a tear-off part which can be detached along a line of perforations, adhesive layers are arranged both below the tear-off part as well as below the tag part, and the adhesive layers are covered by a silicone-coated cover strip (DE-U 91 10 080). All prior art materials mentioned herein are expressly incorporated by reference. In this tag, the silicone coatings leave uncoated transversely extending marginal strips on the cover strip so that, after the detaching of the control section from the tag part, silicone-coated parts of the cover strip remain attached on both the tear-off part and the tag part; and in order to expose the adhesive layers, these parts are folded around the edges between the silicone-coated and the uncoated surfaces.
The separation-active webs for the protection of coatings of pressure-sensitive adhesive are ordinarily formed by a silicone coating which forms a closed surface in which an adhesive cannot anchor itself. For reasons of environmental protection, a silicone coating is applied today in aqueous solution, which means very long drying paths in the production process. Interruptions in the silicone coating are thus not only difficult to produce but it is also difficult, after bringing the webs together, to precisely associate continuous regions of the silicone-coated web with the corresponding regions of the web of material, namely the adhesive areas.